Japanese living in Korea apologize for WWII sexual slavery

A group of 500 Japanese women bowed in front of Seoul City Hall Tuesday, apologizing for the forced sexual slavery of Korean women during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula (1910-1945).

They are members of the Group that Promotes Friendship by Overcoming the History between Korea and Japan.

They read a letter of apology in which they extended a public apology for the sexual slavery.

Waving Japanese and Korean flags, the Japanese women called on the peoples of the two countries to embark on an era of trust and friendship, instead of discord and confrontation, to help promote ties between the two nations.

After issuing the apology, they marched toward Tapgol Park in Jongno, central Seoul, where they paid homage in front of a bronze statue of Korean independence fighter Sohn Byeong-hi, imprisoned during a demonstration following the emergence March 1 Independence Movement in 1919. Tapgol Park is the main commemorative site of that event.

Similar events simultaneously took place in Busan, Daejeon and 10 other large cities across the nation under the auspices of the group in which 1,200 members participated.

The group was formed at the initiative of Yasue Erikawa, 66, who now serves as its leader. She lives in Seoul after marrying a Korean in 1970.

As tensions over historical issues grew between the two countries last year, she did not sit idle. She proposed that Japanese people living in Korea set out to help resolve discord between Korean and Japanese people.